Suffolk billionaire Mike Lynch and five others, including his daughter, are believed to be inside a yacht that sunk off the coast of Italy. 

Lynch, of Wickham Market, is among six tourists missing after a luxury yacht, named Bayesian, sank in a tornado off the coast of Sicily, sources said.

His teenage daughter Hannah, 18, is also missing.

A search and rescue mission to find those missing resumed on Tuesday morning. 

The Italian coastguard believes that those missing are still inside the boat.

Vincenzo Zagarola, of the Italian Coastguard, told the PA news agency that this was the working theory of officials on Sicily because it is believed the boat sank quickly and search and rescue efforts by sea and air have so far delivered no results.

He said: “We think they are still inside the boat, that is our very hard idea.

“Our search and rescue activity by sea and air has gone on for around 36 hours.

“Of course, we do not exclude that they are not inside the boat, but we know the boat sank quickly.

“We suppose that the six people missing may not have had time to get out of the boat.”

Fifteen people including Mr Lynch’s wife, Angela Bacares, were rescued, according to local media.